Anochecer
by Team Bonet
Summary: Heero finds himself on the run, battling between a nightmare and the waking chaos around him
1. Insomnio

Anochecer var yviContents='http://us.toto.geo.yahoo.com/toto?s=76001078 Operation 3   
Anochecer   


**Part I Insomnio**

He was running through the maze the forest had become bellow his feet. Running to save his life, as fast as his tiny feet could take him. Or to end a life. The branches of the trees that continuously hit his face had broke his lips. Small, bloody scars ran up his face. His eyes, blood shot and wide, looked at the forest, hardly taking anything in. He was tired, scared and hungry. 

He had been running forever. 

The young boy gasped, his mind thrown out of the momentum his feet were taking. He stopped slowly, his hand reaching for a branch to steady himself. The voice he had heard was growing louder. Coming closer. It sounded like the one making the voice was also running, perhaps from the same nightmare he was escaping. The young boy closed his eyes, searching with his trained ears for the source. He opened his eyes sharply, his breath lost, as the one making the noise shot out of the bushes before him. 

The young boy swallowed his scream, his eyes widening. A young girl, her hair all tangled with weeds, her feet bare, her shirt half torn around her body, ran out of the bushes. She didn't see him, for she was concentrated on getting away, and smashed into him. The boy felt her weigh hit him fully, sending him to the floor. She gasped, her lovely eyes narrowing slightly and finding him. 

He would have said something, told her to get off from him, told her to watch where she was going, but his brown eyes had shifted to blue unwillingly, his breath lost. She was looking at him silently, her own mouth mute. He staggered to get up, his limbs feeling all torn and broken, like one of the trees that was burning in the distance. Back home, where all was Hell now. 

She got up from him, helping the boy to his feet. She blushed slightly as their hands met, only briefly, and stood back, her long, dark hair blowing in the soft breeze. Sweat fell from her brow to her lips, dark rivulets of ashes mingled with her sweat, just like they did on his own. Her scared eyes bore into his own, his filled with similar fear, and smiled softly. The boy looked at her silently, his short, dark hair hanging in wet rings over his eyes. 

Taking a small step towards her, he reached out a hand, small and insignificant, towards her. He spoke, hardly a whisper. 

"What is y-" 

He was not allowed to finish, for the bushes where she had come from began to move violently, the sound of booted feet erupting from the surroundings. The girl, her eyes still looking at the boy, sprang from her place, her bare feet taking her fast, away from there. The boy cursed, his voice small, as he was taken back by the new figure that smashed at him from the bushes. An old woman, her face haggard and brute, ran out, her hands bloody. Her eyes, filled with madness and wickedness, bore into him. She raised her old hand, a large, sharp knife in it, and smashed it at the boy. She, old yet strong like an ox, pushed the boy aside, her eyes feverishly looking at him. Her knife had torn the boy's shirt, sending a long scar down his chest. The young boy cursed her, his eyes darkening as he looked up at her. 

"You saw a small little girl run this way, boy?" 

The boy swallowed and held his chest, his eyes looking at her with hatred. She, the eldest woman back home, had sold the country. Her signature had been found in the documents that the Fed patrol had posted in the city. Her own hand had doomed many of the young children that now lay dead under the feet of the powerful Mobile Suits that had brought Hell into his home. The old woman, foam falling from her mouth, staggered in her madness, and reached for the boy, but he stepped back. 

"Tell me where she went, Heero," she said. "You saw her, I know so." 

The screams of the people grew louder, far off, in the maze of trees. People running, like him, and crashing blindly through the foliage, only to find someone like this woman to kill them. Heero stepped away from her, his eyes narrowing like a wolf, and his breath becoming shallow like a beast. His feet sprang to action, like the little girl's had done, and he dived blindly into the bushes before him, away from the old woman, her mouth open wide with curses. 

"Heero, return!" she yelled at him, but he didn't listen to her, he only kept running. His eyes were full of tears, his soul full of shame, but he'd find her again. That small little girl, small like him, lost and alone. Like him. 

The small boy smashed into countless rocks, his small body horrified out of his wits, his eyes wide with fear, his breath coming in gasps. His chest ached terribly, the blood in his temples mingling with his sweat. He heard the voices of people grow louder, then shots rang out. Horrible, loud shots, like the sound of huge beast devouring humans. The scream of the men filled the chambers of his heart. He was going insane. 

His small body crashed through the trees, his feet broken by the weeds and grass that cut his skin, and fell into a pool of water. Dark water that filled his nostrils as soon as he fell inside. Heero yelled, his head aching, as the water filled his ears and mouth. He staggered to his feet, his mind spinning, and tried to get out of the pool. 

Unknown things swam past his legs, his skin caressed by dark fish softly. Other things that were not fish began to caress it as well, sending shivers up the boy's spine. He cursed, his small hand reaching into the murky, smelly water and pulling his feet free from the algae that trapped him. Something shot out of the water at his hand, biting his fingers. Heero yelled, his hand shooting up again. 

Leaches had become attached to his legs and he was desperate to free himself from the water. He drew in a ragged breath as he struggled out of the pool, smashing at the animals to get them off. The animals fell to the fungus, leaving red streaks of blood on his legs. The boy fell to his hands into the wet mud, and crawled off as fast as possible. His hands stung, but his mind kept telling him to keep crawling. Keep running. 

The mud threatened to swallow him, but he pulled himself up, cursing himself, and broke free. He gasped as he hit something soft with his tennis shoe. Soft and delicate. 

Heero screamed silently as he saw what it was he had hit emerge slowly from the mud. He fell backwards, his eyes wide, his mouth frozen in a mute scream. There, in the mud, lay the body of a dead child. His face, just like Heero's, looking at the sky, his eyes frozen in death. His skin was dark, full of leashes, and gooey, but he was intact. A huge wound lay over his left shoulder. 

Heero retched, holding his sides, and closed his eyes. He let his body lie there for a long time, his mind and soul sinking in the mud. Sinking into death, like the other child. Sinking... sinking...   
  
  
  
  


(c) 1995 _Gundam Wing_ (c) 1997 Team Bonet. No part, or whole, of the fiction may be copied. To do so is to end up in jail, with the others who have tried it before. Have a nice day.   
  
  



	2. Delirio

Anochecer Operation 3   
Anochecer   


**Part II Delirio**

The mud had taken the soul of the young boy into its nostrils. His mouth full of gunk, Heero woke up with a start, his mind racing like crazy. The gun shots in the distance had been swallowed up by the greenery, the fire that blazed in the houses was consuming what was left off the houses, of his home. The huge machines still roamed the city, the bodies of the dead lay in heaps by the road, their smell travelling all the way to him. the fire licked he doors of his home, licked the faces of his father and mother. Still. 

The nightmares were not over. 

Heero stood up, his arms swung underneath him for support, and got to his feet. The mud had caked his clothes and his tennis shoes. The wet earth now made his hair nothing more than fungus rivulets, his face dirty. He looked down at the corpse of he boy next to him, and closed his eyes. Gently, with the tip of his tennis, he drew some mud over the cadaver, burying it into the earth. 

He had not been out for a long time, he could tell. The noise of the Feds was still in the distance, faint now, but sill there. He shook his head, leaning on a dead tree half buried in the mud. He wondered if the little girl had survived like he had, so far. The vision of the old woman flooded back to him. gasping, he stood up, walking away from the muddy ground, back into the forest. 

The boy could no longer remember the reason for the chase, for his running. He had been running away from death, to find death, to avenge himself? It all mingled into one thought in his head, one terrible thought that did not want to leave him. Whatever the reason, his world was over. He was alone now. 

The fire tongues of the houses climbed up the trees, licking up to the dome above. The cold dome of the colony that served as a cage for the people that lived here. Heero kept on walking, his feet gathering speed. Trapped like animals, the people, his father had known, had been forced to surrender to the Federations demands. His father had refused, Heero remembered, to give into such conditions. The colonies are free, not some soil that the Earth can manipulate. Heero closed his eyes. His father had paid for his believes with his life. When the boy opened his eyes again, tears ran down his cheeks. Hot a bitter. 

He was alone. The fire ate everything. His home, his streets, his friends. The place where he had lived all his life. The people he had never even known. His father and mother. 

Like animals, the people were forced to run away into the forest, because they had thought that in there, the Feds would not find them. They had ran away believing that if they found a way to the earth, they'd be safe, but Heero no longer knew if any of them had survived. He bit his lip. he was the only one left, he thought, his small hands clenching. All the other people were dead, he believed, eaten by the fire, or mad, like that woman. Running around the streets killing the survivors because their own families had died. 

The young boy stopped. The wind had become cold, the atmosphere torn apart as well. He had no place to go now. His home was gone. He would die in some gutter around the colony, like another homeless child. Alone forever, remembering what happened today like it was part of some strange nightmare that he'd never wake from. Lost and distant. 

The child gasped, his breath halting in his lungs. The sounds of footsteps had become louder. Someone was running this way again, or near him, or after him. He looked behind himself, expecting the old lady to jump out of the bushes and attack him. The foliage moved under crazed feet. 

Heero stood silent as the bushes parted quickly and the same girl ran out from them. He stared at her as she ran, her feet taking her fast like a deer, her hair moving wild behind her. She turned around, her scared eyes seeing him, recognizing him as he did. They stood looking at each other silently, their breaths lost in their mouths. The two children stood near each other, their small bodies spent from so much running, their faces ugly from the mud and madness. Still, looking at each other, wondering if they were the only ones left. 

"My family is dead," she whispered, her eyes glazed with tears, but cold with fear. 

Heero drew closer, his small hands reaching to touch her shoulder. She did not draw away, letting him touch her in friendship. The war that had erupted around them had no end, so it seemed, and they were caught in the middle. She smiled grimly at him, her courage beginning to fade. Perhaps destiny had chosen them as companions in the road of poverty that waited for, to starve together. Heero looked at her silently, his eyes narrowing in a gesture of understanding. 

She drew her arms close to her body, her shirt, now in rags, serving as no comfort. It seemed that the sound of the huge Mobile Suits still rang in her ears. It seemed that they were here now, but as Heero looked around, he saw that the machines were still in their homes. parked, it seemed. he looked at her, noticing she was shivering. 

"Here," he said quietly as he took off his shirt and gave it to her. 

The girl looked at him quietly, her hands taking the torn shirt and drawing it over her body. She smiled, her mouth twisting softly, fearful of the tears. he ran a hand over his muddy hair, drawing the filth out slowly. One of his yellow tennis shoes was missing, he noticed. His black shorts were the colour of mud. What would his mother say if...? 

The young boy felt his throat begin to hurt, but gasped in amazement as the girl caught his hand. She looked into his eyes, her soft irises shinning. Heero watched as she combed her hair with her fingers, drawing the weeds out. She looked strange to him in his green shirt. She looked at him, her childlike eyes starting to relax for a while at least. he felt his throat long to speak, to ask her name, but he had no chance. 

"There you are!" 

Heero screamed as the old woman jumped out of the bushes, her hands red with blood and her soul mad, even more, he believed, that before. She ran up to them, her hands reaching to grab the young girl. Heero felt his legs collapse as the girl drew away, running from the old woman. She tugged at Hire's hand, begging him to come with her. The young boy followed, his eyes wildly locked on the old woman. The woman was crazy, her eyes were distorted in their sockets. Hot blood ran down her face, into her lips. "Come back!" She yelled, running after them, her arms reaching to grab them. Her body moved with speed over the uneven soil, and the children grew scared as the road became narrow, the trees slowing them down. The old lady cackled, her deranged mind taking over and reached to hold on to the girl's long hair. Yanking it backwards, she pulled the girl towards her. 

Heero screamed as he saw the old woman hold his friend. He smashed his fists at the old lady, his small hands hardly any help, but never stopping. The old lady screamed, dragging the girl by the hair. The child wailed horribly, clawing at the woman's hands, but did not let go of Heero's hand. The boy pulled her, trying to make the old woman release her. The girl cried out, her head in great pain. 

"Let go!" Heero yelled, his eyes feral, his voice croaking. 

The old woman kicked him, her hands gripping the boy's face. Her nails dug into his skin, breaking it. he yelled in pain, and kicked at her harder. The girl swung her legs at the woman's belly, but she was possessed by madness, her grief too powerful. 

"You'll pay for my daughter, you evil witch!" she yelled. 

The girl sobbed loudly, struggling to let go. Heero's cries grew louder, his hands frantic, as he saw the old woman reach for her knife, drawing it close to the girl. He screamed, clawing at the old lady, yanking her hair. She swung at him, catching his arms, but he did not release her. 

"You killed my daughter, witch!" 

Heero cursed, his child boy smashing into the woman. The girl screamed as the old lady cut her hands with the knife, her blood spilling into their bodies. She cried out, her eyes pleading for help, searching those of Heero, whose hands were bleeding, yet, never letting go. 

"I did not kill your daughter," the girl pleaded. "It was the Feds!" 

"Liar!" the old woman yelled, smashing the girl into a tree. "Liar!" 

Heero felt his mind die as she hit the tree, his soul aching as she yelled. He tried to release her, but he could do nothing. He was so small, so helpless. He was useless to anyone. The old lady smashed the girl harder, her hands reddened with the child's blood. Heero screamed, his tears blinding him, and pulled the girl to him, in a desperate attempt. He felt the girl's body swing half unconscious, half dead. 

"Let go of her, you crazy woman!" he yelled, his small voice shrill in the forest. "The Fed killed her, like they killed everyone else!" 

Heero screamed as he saw the old woman raise her knife and swing down o the girl's head, her eyes red with anger, wet with tears. The young boy heard himself screaming like an animal, as he pulled the girl closer to his own body, and felt the knife pierce his skin, his blood spraying over the old woman. 

He was falling then. Falling into the darkness. His screams would not stop. 

The children fell to the floor, their tortured bodies collapsing into each other in sad pieces. The old woman's scream pierced their souls as their bodies lay on the ground gasping for breath. Loud gun shots rang, hitting the woman on her chest, her eyes widening horribly, like some monster. Her screams became a loud gurgle as blood erupted from her mouth and into the wet soil. Heero felt his soul banging at the sides of his body, madly, trying to get away from such horrors, as the old woman's body fell next to them, dead. Her knife fell a few steps away, making no sound in the wet mud. 

In death, the old woman seemed thankful that she could now join her family, released from the pain. 

The boy closed his eyes, as the little girl beside him sobbed softly, her hand gripping his hand still. He struggled to get up, helping her, but she drew her head to the ground, her eyes closed, her tears falling to the mud. 

"I did not kill her daughter," she sobbed. "The Feds killed her thinking it was me." 

Heero touched her hair, combing it back softly. She drew closer to him, burying her head in his chest, giving out all her pain, trusting him. Even if this was the first time they met, in this night of horrors and pain, when both of them lost everything and everyone. 

A soft chuckle broke the silence. It sounded old and strangely amused. 

"Look what I found here." 

Heero gasped as he looked up, his small eyes weary of evil. He looked silently at the old man that came closer, walking slowly, his legs hindered by the iron clamps that were wrapped around them. The old man made his way to the children, his body leaning heavily on a metal cane that buried itself i the mud. Heero found himself mute, staring into the eyes of the old man. Eyes that were not eyes, but two revolving metallic disks. The old man chuckled again, sensing the boy's awe, and drew his hand up. Strange, metallic fingers, crooked and thin, clanked in glee as the old man bent close to look at the children. 

"Go away," Heero said, drawing the girl closer to his body defensively. 

The old man smiled, his long, white beard shaking. The girl lifted her head in Heero's chest and stared at his silently. Her eyes widened slightly, her hands reaching out towards him. The young boy gasped as she got up from his side and ran into the old man's arms. 

"Ojisama!" 

Heero struggled to his feet, watching the old man enfold his granddaughter lovingly, his soul aching for his child. 

"My dear Anochecer," he said, holding her. "The nightmares are over, for now." 

The old man's disk eyes rolled sadly, a soft expression on his face. He smiled as the girl buried her sobbing face in his chest, but never stopped looking at Heero. The young boy felt his insides break, the only friend he believed left, had no reason to stay with an orphan. 

"Ah, " the old man said. "Heero Yui." 

The young child gasped, his eyes narrowing untrustworthy. He drew back from the old man a his metallic hand reached out to hold him. The old man laughed grimly, understanding the boy's retreat. The little girl smiled sadly, leaving the old man's side. She looked at Heero, her eyes full of soft tears, and drew closer. The boy held his breath as she held him, enfolding him with her arms, her dark hair flying around him. She smiled sadly, looking at his face. He looked deep into her eyes, his mouth twisted in pain, trying not to sob. 

"A strong soul, and such kind eyes," the old man said. "Just like the president." 

The young boy looked at the old man silently, drawing closer, feeling a soft energy flow from him that seemed to pull him towards him. The girl was looking at him silently, her tears gone, running a hand over her dirty face. Heero caught a glance of the gun in the old man's coat, hidden and quiet. 

"President...?" 

The old man chuckled, leaning on his cane, his eyes revolving softly, making a soft noise. Heero listened to that noise, his tired body wanting to collapse. 

"I, like your father," the old man said slowly, "remember when the shot Heero Yui, the president of the colonies." 

Heero let himself collapse as the old man reached for him, enfolding him in his arms. The young boy looked up at the old man's eyes, his own fool of tears. Everything was almost gone: the houses, the trees, the town square, the people. Those who had survived had run away to other homes, hoping others had survived. Those who had lived would never return to this place, save in dreams. In dreams they would never leave this Hell, or stop running from it. The sounds of yelling had now gone totally silent. The Mobile Suits had left their homes. 

Heero felt his head fall into the old man's chest, his eyes closing tiredly. He felt the old man put his metal hand over his body, holding him like the father he knew until this night. Now forever gone into the fire and darkness. The young boy tightened his eyes, feeling the girl hold on to her grandfather lovingly, her hand enveloping him as well, glad that she had been given a chance to fight again. The young boy looked silently at the old man as he drew away slowly. 

"Come, Heero," he said. "Let's go home."   
  
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End file.
